36. Principles of Foregrounding.

Arnold: Foregrounding is a means of the text organization that draw a reader’s attention to certain parts of the text and that set up semantically relevant relations between elements of one or different levels. General functions of foregrounding are: 1) set up the hierarchy of meanings and elements within the text, that is they bring forward the most relevant parts of the text. 2) provide the integrity of the text and at the same time they split it into several parts and set up bounds between the parts and between the text and its components. 3) make the process of decoding easier by organizing the information in such an order that the reader will be able to decode even the elements that he didn’t know before. 4) create an esthetic context and perform lots of relevant functions, one of which is expressiveness. Expressiveness is such a feature of the text or its part that transfers the message with high intensity and as a result produces emotional and logical intensity. The main types of foregrounding are: 1) Convergence is a concentration of SDs at one place that perform the same stylistic function. When SDs interact they make one other more prominent and the signal they transfer cannot remain unnoticed. Convergence components may be different (parallel constructions, repetitions, neologisms, metaphors, etc.) Abundance helps to prevent the reader from misunderstanding the essence of the text in case of convergence. Due to abundance the reader can predict the next component due to its connection with the previous components. 2) Coupling is the appearance of similar elements in similar positions that makes the text integral. The notion helps to reveal the character and essence of the unity of form and content in a fiction text. Similarity of the elements may be phonetic, structural or semantic. Similarity of the positions may have syntactic character and be based upon the position of the element in a speech chain or the structure of a poem. Structural similarity is expressed by morphological constructions and syntactic parallelism, semantic similarity – by the use of synonyms, antonyms, and hyponyms. 3)Unjustified expectation (deceived expectation) ?? is a type of foregrounding that presupposes that due to the speech continuity the reader can predict the next component and when a component of low probability appears it ruins the continuity and influences the reader much. The unj.expectation can be expressed by contrast. At the lexical level it can be archaic words, neologisms, periphrasis, and oxymoron. Galperin:-.

This term was first used by a man called Jan Mulcanovsky. By the way, foregrounding refers to the factors of deviating from linguistic and literary norms. Deviation itself is a de-automatisation of familiar linguistic and literary pattern. It means there are certain words we use everyday as if automatic. Foregrounding will then do reversal i.e. de-automatise such automatic words, e.g. University

students are unbeautiful.Again foregrounding is used to thematise certain words or linguistic item. In this case, a structure or words foregrounded acquire prominence or significance in a text as a result of making use of certain aspect of the language. Thus, if a writer or a speaker frequently uses adjectives that indicate or suggest vibrancy, and analyst would see this as an attempt to mimic or ape a particular situation being described or presented. In similar manner, the prepondance of lexical item may be deployed to paint an atmosphere of serenity or calmness. In the same vein, sounds can be repeatedly use for the same purpose.

It should be noted that there are two forms of foregrounding. They are:

1) Deviational foregrounding,

2)Non-deviational foregrounding

The non-deviational type of foregrounding is a structure that acquires a prominent significance in a text as a result of making use of certain aspect of language. Example is such a systematic repeated/or prepondent manner that attracts the attention of a reader; Dr Fatunsi is a lion-hearted chief, Dr Fatunsi is a dogged fighter who never discourages until victory is attempted, Dr. Fatunsi ……, Dr Fatunsi ….., whereas, the deviational type draws its own attraction if the readers attention is drawn by a way of violating the rules and norms of the pattern.

In foregrounding there is also what is called prominence. Michael Halliday observes that foregrounding is prominence, that is motivated. So we can have motivated and unmotivated prominence. It is the motivated prominence that goes with foregrounding. If a linguistic item is motivated we say it is significant for meaning and if not, it is not significant for meaning. Therefore, before a particular item/unit can be considered as foregrounding, it needs to be firstly analysed so as to find out the norms in order to discover a prominence or foregrounded structure. Lexical items can only be foregrounded.